NJSkiFamily

This is just horrible - I am so very, very sorry to read this. Please take care and our thoughts are with you.

It was crowded, no question about it. The snowplow crowd was out in force. Oh yeah, rush hour gridlock on some trails. Yes, there were long lines at the quads but the lifties do a good job at keeping the line moving. The line at Cameltop literally went to the front door. I have never seen that before. I was there in the afternoon with both my kids. We avoided the high traffic areas completely. Bigger issue was how icy the entire mountain was. Sugar on top and ice underneath. I could not hold an edge anywhere on the mountain. At first I thought I had done a crappy job sharpening my skis but both kids said it was icy. Skied Cliffhanger for the first time. Great trail. It was empty so it held up well. Some bumps at the top section. The bump section on Lower Cleo was great - soft bumps, no ice, lot of fun, the newbies avoided that one like the plague. This was the first time I've been at CB since before Christmas. I knew with the crowds that the snow would be pushed off the slopes, but I was surprised that I couldn't hold an edge even on the greens.

Come to think of it.....both times we got stopped right where there had been an accident.

Call me ignorant, but are you guys talking about giving someone morphine through an IV? Because first responders are not allowed to insert an IV. Not even EMTs are permitted to insert an IV. Only paramedics, right?

Got to CB around 11:30am. Parked in lot 7 which told us there were more people there already than last weekend. The snow was softer than last weekend but not by much. Definitely not hero snow. Good carving snow and still packed powder in most places....just a bit softer than last weekend. Some trails on the east side were open - Nile Mile and Pharaoh. Big Pocono and Rocket were also open. So even though there was more people, everyone was spread out so there was minimal lines at all the lifts, including both quads. We had been warned about this last weekend and it turned out to be true. The novice skiers/riders were out in force. And tons of little kids....made you wonder if CB was giving people a discount if they brought a preschooler. And they all headed for Nile Mile. Holy cow. The trail itself was in great shape but it was a garage sale of newbies sprawled on the ground all over the place. Like some invisible sniper taking shots at people. After two runs on Nile Mile we just couldn't stand having to go around so many people on the ground. Pharaoh was a complete sheet of ice at the top. Not worth a second run because the bottom of trail is no different than any others at CB. The big surprise was how well Big Pocono held up. Usually I avoid that trail because it ices up and too many novices think they can ski it and end up getting into trouble making it dangerous for everyone else. But it was packed powder the whole day and fairly empty. Most people headed over to the Rocket instead. It was in great shape. Got a wee bit bumpy at the top but otherwise smooth sailing all the way down. Margies bumped up nicely at the top by late afternoon. And that scared off everyone. Which was shame because the bumps were extremely soft and really no ice inbetween. But people avoided it like the plague. Sadly, there was a bad accident at the bottom of Margies. I don't know if it was a collision or just somebody out of control but the person was taken off unconscious on the stretcher. And yet again we picked the trail where the Rangers stopped everyone to get their opinion on the snow conditions. Yup, right at the bottom of Margies the Rangers were whistling everyone to stop and talk. Around 4pm the fog started to build up at the top. We quit around 5pm. Cameltop was not open. Don't know why as it was open last weekend and there were less people. So we ate at the base lodge and the food was pretty good. Fries were hot and crunchy. Decent chicken noodle soup. I had two slices of pizza that wasn't bad. My new ski boots that had me in agony last weekend performed beautifully this time. I spent most of my ski time playing around with my stance and technique to get used to the feel. Kudos to the snow makers and groomers at CB. Conditions were great. I'll mention that I love hearing the Christmas music played on the outdoor loudspeakers. I love all things Christmas and I'm a sentimental sap about it so I get a real kick out of skiing and hearing Christmas music......its great being on the slopes before Christmas and hearing "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let It Snow" or "Winter Wonderland".

Amen to that....(is that the Snow Meiser or the Freeze Meiser in your avatar, I forget his name?)

Top of Madonna looking at the beginning of the Upper Chilcoot trail. Its that narrow pretty much most of the way down (opens up in a few spots) but groomed the entire way. Oh, found out why you have to ski down from the base lodge to get on the Madonna 1 lift. Pure ego is the answer. The founder of Smuggs (who founded IBM) wanted to have the longest chair lift in VT and in order to beat the record the bottom of the lift had to be built below the base lodge. So that's why you ski down to get on the lift. My ski instructor last year has worked for Smuggs for 49 years and is full of trivia and some great stories.

Lower Doc Dempsey glades

I seem to remember in the past that the trail map would have the open trails marked in yellow so you could see which was open and which wasn't.

My thoughts exactly. I was going to say "that really stinks" until I saw the comments about IBS and decided to leave that alone.

We've gone up twice a year for the past four years and will be up there twice this winter. The resort is pretty compact - Sterling and Madonna mountains are side by side and the trails are intermediate/expert only. The beginners stay on Morse. We love the variety of the terrain - the real appeal is the glades and bump trails. There is nothing off limits within the boundaries of the resort. New glades were cut this year including doubling the width of Doc Dempsey glades which we can't wait to try. The atmosphere of the place is extremely friendly and easy going. Remember, this is the #1 family resort. People there are very chatty. Someone once told me that the snobs go to Stowe and everyone one else goes to Smuggs. All lodging is slopeside so ski in and ski out. Very convenient. The food in the Sterling base lodge is very good, but expensive (yikes). It blows my mind how much we spend per day for lunch and snacks. Yes, the lifts are doubles only and no high speed anything. That's just the way things are there. The Madonna 1 lift is a 12 minute ride. You'll exchange life stories with people on the lifts. On the plus side it keeps the traffic on the trails low. On the downside, the lines on the Sterling lift can get really, really long....head on over to the Madonna 2 lift which doesn't get as crowded. There is no night skiing. Smuggs has limited snow making because they don't have access to enough water. Which means they don't have the ability to recover from warm spells until mother nature bails them out. I've seen the trail count cut in half in a matter of days during warm spells. JMHO but the restaurants in the Smugg's area are horrible. You either have to drive to Burlington or head on over to Stowe to find decent restaurants. We drive 30 minutes to find a decent pizza place and that's a very sad statement. Take a group ski lesson. You can sign up in advance and the instructors are great. Many of them have worked at Smuggs for decades. Early Feb is a great time to go - usually some of the best conditions though it can be brutally cold so make sure you watch the extended weather forecast. We were up one President's Day weekend the the temperature on Sunday morning was minus 26 degrees. They do a torch light parade and fireworks every Thursday night. There is an indoor pool and hot tubs in the village area. All the condo units have wifi access but the cable TV is horrible - very limited number of channels. Like no cartoon network. How can you be the #1 family resort and not have cartoon network. Its a disgrace.

Thanks.....I don't want to jinx it as the previous four times we've been up over Christmas break the conditions were horrible (rain). December usually starts out great then around the 20th the temps warm up and the snow disappears. I've never seen the trail count so high this early in December.

Hi everyone, Been away waaay too long from this mb, but I'm back. Had our first ski day of the season and it was a good one. Started out late, had to pick up my son from a sleepover (yet his alarm clock went off at 6:30am), then we stopped to buy season passes, then daughter finds she's had a growth spurt and the ski boots that fit when we leased them back in October do not fit anymore, etc, etc. So it seemed forever to get onto the slopes. Well worth the starting gate frustrations. Snow conditions were very good for this time in December. Packed powder with occasional sugar thrown in. We skied from about 11:30 to 4ish and really saw no deterioration in the snow. Hard pack and very carveable. Usual places iced up but not too bad. Temps hovered around freezing point so very comfortable. Really didn't cloud up until later in the afternoon. Crowds were minimal. With one quad open the lines did get a tad long but it moved. Headed over to the Marc Anthony lift and whoa, there was a long line. Yikes, usually the Marc Anthony lift has no line. But it was the only lift open on that side of the mountain. I think one thing that helped keep the snow in good condition was the absence of noob skiers/riders. Saw very, very few people snowplowing or riding their boards perpendicular down the entire way. So the snow didn't get scraped away like it usually does in heavily traffic areas like Honeymoon lane. Marjies held up very well - no bumps at all even in the late afternoon. Oh, Cameltop was open and they've changed the menu. No more hamburgers (still have hot dogs) but they are offering a deli counter (including paninis). My son was bummed as he prefers hamburgers. Late in the day a Ranger stopped us and I thought we were in trouble but not the case at all as he was asking our opinion on conditions that day. BTW the Rangers were out in full force today. I only heard the whistles blown a few times. I had on new boots today and I should have spent time beforehand wearing them and breaking them in. It was like wearing two clamps around my lower calves - ouch. Got much better later in the day but early on my calves were screaming in pain. So good way to start the season. Will try to get back next Saturday then we're off to Smuggler's Notch over the Christmas break.

Hey, you guys beat me writing a trip report. We were at Elk on both Saturday and Sunday (2/17 & 2/18). Yeah, the snow was Ah-Mazing!!!!! Okay Doug.....now I know what you mean about liking soft powdery snow versus hardpack. It was like white pixie dust. And the great thing about this stuff is that it stayed on the trails and never got brushed off to the sides. I only encountered a wee bit of ice on Kickapoo and that was on Sunday around 2pm. How about skiing on groomed blacks and not hitting a single bit of ice nor that scary scraping sound. Unbelievable. Having said that, this stuff bumps up really well and even the blue cruiser trails started bumping up by mid-afternoon. It was great. Perfect for a newbie bumpee like me to practice on. As for the crowds.....yeah, the lines got long. On Saturday around 9:30am the line to buy lift tickets extended all the way across the ski shop almost to the top of the stairs where you board the shuttle bus. And the lines at the lift in front of the lodge almost extended to the other lift. The lines at the quad/double lift sometimes got long. But Elk does a good job managing the lines and they were always moving so even though you did have a wait it didn't "feel" so bad. My only complaint on Saturday was lifts constantly stopping. The quad was particularly bad at constantly stopping. My advice - the double is faster than the quad. Even thought the lift lines were long the trails never felt crowded. The biggest problem was deciding which one - they were ALL fantastic. Yes, my kids loved heading off into the woods. My son (age 12) tripped on a branch and fell down and found himself stuck because his arms sank up to his armpits in the snow. I had to tell him the "cross your ski poles" trick to get up. We headed over to the terrain park a bunch of times. Its neither the biggest or the best but my kids had fun. Everyone there seemed well behaved. I've got some pictures that I need to upload and post. My only rant is the nonsense in the cafeteria. Its bad enough people bringing in their luggage and depositing it on the tables but this time we saw way too many full-sized Coleman coolers blocking table space. Elk needs to build a separate cafeteria only accessable from the trails for people who just want to eat a quick meal and then head back on the slopes. Only bad thing to the weekend was coming home when we almost got into an accident. It snowed enough on Sunday to coat the roads. We were on the road leading away from Elk and there was a purple Suburban/Excursion coming the other way who skidded and slams on the brakes and starts fish-tailing. The SUV does a full 360 and misses us by inches. The only reason we did not get broad-sided is that my husband drove straight into the snowbank on the side of the road to get out of the way. And get this.....the SUV is still sliding and has spun around and is now blocking the road. We are completely stuck in a four foot snowbank on the side of the road. So what does the other driver do? Just puts the car in gear and drives off - doesn't even check to see if we are okay. On the positive side....plenty of people stopped and got out of their cars to check if we were okay and helped push us out of the snow. It took about 15 minutes but we were on our way. A bit shaken but fine. It was really nice to see so many come to our aid.

Apologies to Mark, but that gave me a much needed laugh. The Valentine's storm was a big bust for us.

About 3-4 inches of sleet - that's it. Major disappointment. It was good for sledding in the yard. Kids had off yesterday and 2 hour delayed opening today. Glad to hear you guys got some decent amounts.

I find the slushy stuff tires out the muscles faster. That and it makes my skis feel like lead weights. Yeah, I agree about the scraping sound - it does sound threatening when you hear it coming up behind you. (que the Jaws movie menacing sound here) I ski on all-mountain skis that does better on the hard pack. But you don't get any natural bumps on the hard pack.

Ugh.......an all snow event on the 14th would have been the best Valentine's gift from Mother Nature. Oh well......please, anything but rain. Sleet on top of snow is okay with me because it may change back to snow at the end.

Gotta agree 100% here. We were at CB on Saturday and we thought the conditions were fantastic. I did spend a lot of time Friday night waxing and sharpening our skis and that made a huge difference. We felt the hard pack was great at holding edges - no slipping/skidding around. Far better than the soft snow we had earlier in the season. And as for ice....on Saturday we didn't really see it until after 2pm. And the snow on the edges of the trails was just fine. You just have to expect that things will ice up. Big Pocono was its usual mix of people that shouldn't be on that trail along with tons of ice. Marjies and Rocket were fine. Yeah, they get icy but there's enough patches of snow to make your turns. Neither one of them bumped up at all. Never did get over to Nile Mile. We really like the bumps on Lower Cleo. Its funny to see the ruts get big enough at the end of the day to swallow a kid.

This news keeps getting better and better. Thanks for the updates everyone - keep us posted. I would be disappointed with "just" a foot. Two feet is needed.

Thanks Glen for the reply. I didn't even think about people dropping in from the right hand side. I like the advice of waiting until the 3rd hit. We were at CB on Saturday. So did we get a chance to try out your advice? Of course not. Why? Because when we got over to the pipe it was completely empty!!! Not a soul other than the park guy checking passes. No one in the pipe and no one waiting. I started wondering whether or not it was haunted. It was still empty when we left. We didn't go back for a second turn.

We plan on being there. Kids want to race Nastar. We eat lunch at Cameltop then head over to Raceway (via lower Cleo to play on the bumps).

Awesome!!!!

Exactly......if we all had to go back to the base lodge to sign the forms then I could see people getting angry. I didn't see anyone else mumble about it, even when waiting in the barn to sign the forms. Everyone seemed happy to have the park pass system in place.

Questions for the park crew.......you're in line waiting for your turn to go in the half pipe. The person in front of you goes in. How long should you wait until you go in? Is it some certain amount of time or do you wait until the person has criss-crossed a few times? What's the rule here? We were there on Saturday and it seemed some people waited just a few seconds and then dropped in and some people waited until the person was halfway down the pipe. Also.....is there a designed "line forms here" spot? I know this sounds obvious but it was difficult to tell who was in line versus who was just sitting on the ground taking a rest. We don't want to cut in line but we also don't want to stand behind someone who is just taking a break. Thanks guys......